YOU ANIMAL!

I LOVE bears. Never saw the need for cuddly toy bears – I just wanted to know Gentle Ben… Ask just about anyone and they will say they LOVE bears – they even might have one or two toy ones laying around to prove it. Sadly, the fate of most bear species around the world is one of suffering and cruelty – but even though I would like nothing more than to get into a discussion about animal cruelty and shout from rooftops about how bad humans are to animals, this post concerns the health of humans, even though sometimes I feel that so few deserve it.

And I LOVE gorillas. So much that as a child, while every other girl wanted to be Barbie or a princess, I wanted to be Dian Fossey and live with the wild mountain gorillas. Over the years I found out most people actually love gorillas even if they mistakenly call them monkeys which they are not. And as usual, the fate of gorillas is as sad and bad as that of bears around the world. But that is not the purpose of this post.

And pigs, I LOVE them. As a young girl I’d go to friends’ farms who had a few as pets or for making a little pocket money – and cuddle the babies – and feel sad because I knew their fate. Even though back then at least they were able to dig in the mud and even walk around paddocks to make nests for their babies, the purpose was still the same. I was shocked that ‘pig feed’ for animals that are essentially vegetarians, contained meat meal and nutrients such as lysine to encourage obesity in them – while their wild counterparts were lean and stocky, they were rolling with fat – ‘good for bacon’… But again, this is not a post about animal cruelty.

It’s about animals that I love, and how much we as humans reflect our animal equivalents – or at least what they should be. In fact, I could go on all day about that – but I wont. I love animals – more than I love most humans. Sad but true. What humans would defend you to the death, as a pet dog would? Or love you regardless of how you look in the morning or when you are unwell, as your cat will? Or sing with you even if the day is bleak, like a bird will? What human gives the colour and beauty (unless made up and airbrushed) that a tank or sea of fish will? In fact, the most graceful animals, the most fittest and agile, not to mention the strongest, are vegetarian, even vegan.

Many people love dogs or cats to distraction; even admiring or wanting to be like them, especially in their fitness – and that’s okay – but as they have very, very short digestive systems, they are true meat eaters. So too with the big cats – although even they will eat a little green and seeds in the wild.

The argument for human diet has raged for centuries. So many diets are touted as the only way. Experts will even tell you that your food should be based on your blood group, based on some theory that we are hunter gatherers or cavemen who can only eat set foods or face ill health and inflammation. Yes, some of the aspects are very accurate but this theory is flawed and just like with so many other faddish diets, has been proven to be incorrect – it may reduce lectins in the body but does not make the body alkaline – therefore is completely off the mark.

Scientists will tell you that as we have flat molars, and tiny ‘canines’ and incisors, we must be omnivores. The truth is, animals who are true omnivores do not have the luxury of a gun or hunting knife/spear. They do it all with teeth. Humans simply cannot do that – our faces are more like a seed-eating bird’s or even a gorilla’s; flat, angular where the supposed weapon (teeth and jaws) are not shaped for physical hunting – and nor are our teeth. As an almost lifelong vegetarian, I can testify that I could not be so if I had long, sharp, jagged teeth. I still have all my teeth (apart from one errant wisdom tooth that decided it wanted to lay down sideways and grow into wherever it could…) and they work extremely well; ripping into hard raw vegetables, scraping layers of different raw fruits and nuts, and grinding the seeds my body needs for essential fatty acids and micro nutrients. Meanwhile, I don’t know of many omnivorous people my age who are free of cavities and actually have all their own original teeth in tact. Even races in remote areas who never eat sugar or lollies, you will find cavities or even missing teeth; meat putrefies – it begins breaking down upon death. And we have that waste lodged in our teeth and pocketing in our very slow digestive systems – and all that time, it is decaying – not breaking down or being assimilated – but actually decaying.

Let’s get to body shape, odour, features. We are not covered in dense hair, as most other hunting carnivorous or omnivorous usually are. That argument is crazy – the closest carnivorous creature that has a bald head/face is the vulture; which is able to put its head into a rotting carcass to rip out the meat from the inside. But then again, it also has a very thin, long neck in order to do this. We humans do not.

Our bodies have a certain smell – in fact, try this little experiment. We can all do with an occasional detox – so buy some foot patches. They adhere to the bottom of the feet during sleep and you pull them off in the morning – usually shocked at what has been drawn out. These patches contain only a type of bamboo and vinegar which are both drawing agents, similar to magnesium in magnoplasm paste – with the heavy metal toxicity detox effects of EDTA. Upon removal, the smell is the most obvious thing, apart from the thick, black goo that has been captured – it smells like cooked or warm ham. A little like some humans smell when they go without soap or deodorants/perfumes. Interestingly enough, wild pig does not carry the same smell that their domestic counterparts do; they don’t eat meat in the wild.

If you consider pigs – we are close enough genetically to be able to take their heart valves – and technically, they are vegetarians yet humans give them meat meal to make them fat and unhealthy just like their human counterparts. It doesn’t take a genius to tell us that a diet high in meat is resulting in obesity. Studies have shown that upon death, (and the weight is variable), around 8lbs of incompletely digested meat sits stagnating in the bowel – something it does not do in a true omnivore or carnivore as their bowels are short, allowing for fast digestion and elimination. In humans, sluggish bowels are so common that laxatives have for the last century been one of the more common over-the-counter drugs sold. What a shame – you could get the same result just by increasing raw food. Bowel cancer is at such a rate that 80 Australians alone die of it each week. And each of these are meat eaters.

Or what about gorillas close to us genetically and the strongest primates; yet never eat animals. More and more vegan bodybuilders are ‘coming out’ – the only difference between them and their omnivorous colleagues is that aging is kinder. Aged bodybuilders who have lived on a vegan diet are free of the brown fat build up, joint and bone disorders – not to mention lack of elasticity, nervous system disorders and chronic disease that is now put down to old age – when it has nothing to do with it, as more and more young people – even children – are suffering.

Okay, so a few species of bear sometimes eat fish but only to supplement the plant-based diet. If each of these are so strong and usually so healthy, how come we can’t get it into our heads that this is how we should be….

So, the grace of a gazelle, the strength of a gorilla, the mothering instincts of a pig, the sleekness of wild bear. We have more in common with each of these animals yet very few of us resemble them at all. In the wild, obesity and chronic illness is rare – along with diabetes, tooth decay, constipation, skin diseases and alzheimers.

Yes, there are many factors to health – lifestyle, environment, genetics – but is that any reason to not make an effort? As if animals have not been damaged enough just so humans can eat them, we are choosing to do the same to ourselves. In the wise words of one of my lecturers –

“If you don’t learn from cows, and keep drinking milk long after you should be weaned, you will turn into a big fat cow. Likewise, if you continue to forcefeed yourself and shovel the wrong food into your once perfect body, you too will turn into a big fat pig…”